Brussels, 02/06/2008 (Agence Europe) - "The situation of Europe's fish stocks continues to be alarming (...). TACs are consistently set too high, the systems to limit fishing effort have not had the desired results and there are serious shortcomings on quota controls", states the European Commission in its "General Policy Statement", which it adopted on Friday 30 May. This document lists the principles which will guide the Commission in the adoption of proposals on the total allowable catches (TACs) and quotas for the year 2009, to be adopted between September and December 2008.
The Commission proposes measures to remedy these problems. They will, amongst other things, "review the limitations" to be respected when setting annual adjustments to the TACs and quotas, improve certain technical measures, bring in a more regional approach to fisheries management and move from a system of an authorised days-at-sea to a kilowatts/daily regime, which is easier to police and more flexible to apply.
Resource levels. The state of some 57% of the stock still remains unknown, mainly due to the inaccuracy of catch declarations. 88% of EU stocks are overfished, compared to an average of 25% at international level. Despite all efforts made, no general improvement in the state of stocks has been noted since 2003. Overfishing and stock exhaustion are due partly to the fact that TACs and fishing effort have been set at levels which are too high. The TACs set by the Council have been, on average, 48% higher than levels considered sustainable by the scientific bodies, on the basis of the principle of precaution.
New approach to setting TACs. The Commission proposes setting fishing possibilities in line with the level of fishing mortality, which will produce the highest yield from the stock in the long term. Annual variations in the TAC were previously limited to 15% in either direction, to provide a minimum level of stability for the sector. The Commission therefore proposes a more flexible approach to year-on-year changes in TACs, on the basis of advice from the Commission's scientific, technical and economic committee on fisheries (CSTEP) and in line with that recently proposed as part of the cod recovery plan. This will allow genuine conservation measures to be taken where they are most needed, while helping industry benefit from recovery once it has taken root. For stocks with a low level of biomass, it is proposed that TACs be reduced by up to 20% a year, while for stocks which have recovered beyond the level which allows the highest yield to be taken, TACs could be increased by up to 25% a year. When STECF advises a zero catch, TACs should be reduced by at least 25%.
Fishing effort. The reduction in the number of days at sea has made no real contribution towards reducing actual fishing effort. It is, therefore, unrealistic to believe that fishing effort can be reduced by simply cutting the number of days spent at sea. For this reason, the Commission is recommending a fishing effort management system based on limits expressed in kilowatts-days (kw-days). This method should help the member states to strike a balance between the capacity of the fleet and fishing possibilities. It would also help them to make the best possible allocation of kw-days in order to encourage low-discard fishing and practices avoiding cod catches. This new system will be proposed at the revision of the cod recovery stock plan for the years to come and in the 2009 proposal on TACs, for immediate implementation. (L.C.)